Orthodox Christianity

The word “Lent,” now associated exclusively with the observance of the liturgical year, originally meant “spring” and had no directly religious significance. In English usage, however, its reference was gradually limited to the season of preparation for Pascha, a season that does, in fact, coincide with spring.

In languages dependent on Latin, the word for Lent is some variant of “forty,” derived from the Latin *quadragesima*. This is a period of forty days of fasting in imitation of the Lord himself, who observed exactly that length of time in fasting prior to the beginning of his earthly ministry. Lent is also associated with the forty day fasts of Moses, on Mount Sinai, and of Elijah, as he journeyed to that same mountain. Doubtless it was this combination of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah together on the mountain of Transfiguration that prompted many believers to read that Gospel story near the beginning of Lent.
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From: 30 Days

The Catholic Church this year celebrates the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. How does the Eastern Christian and Byzantine Tradition celebrate the Conception of Mary and her full and immaculate holiness?

Bartholomew I: The Catholic Church found that it needed to institute a new dogma for Christendom about one thousand and eight hundred years after the appearance of the Christianity, because it had accepted a perception of original sin – a mistaken one for us Orthodox – according to which original sin passes on a moral stain or a legal responsibility to the descendants of Adam, instead of that recognized as correct by the Orthodox faith – according to which the sin transmitted through inheritance the corruption, caused by the separation of mankind from the uncreated grace of God, which makes him live spiritually and in the flesh. Mankind shaped in the image of God, with the possibility and destiny of being like to God, by freely choosing love towards Him and obedience to his commandments, can even after the fall of Adam and Eve become friend of God according to intention; then God sanctifies them, as he sanctified many of the progenitors before Christ, even if the accomplishment of their ransom from corruption, that is their salvation, was achieved after the incarnation of Christ and through Him.
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Last Sunday Before the Triodion

Rehoboam was almost the perfect example of what the Bible means by the word “fool.” Because he was the son of Solomon, Israel’s wisest king, this foolishness was a matter of irony as well as tragedy.

After Solomon’s death in 922, this heir to Israel’s throne traveled to Schechem, to receive the nation’s endorsement as its new ruler. The move was especially necessary with respect to Israel’s northern tribes, a people touchy about their traditional rights and needing to be handled gently. Even David, we recall, had to be made king twice, first over Judah about the year 1000 (2 Samuel 2:4,10) and then over the north some years later (5:4-5).
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In 1951 Father Theodosios Makkos saved the life of Prince Hussein who later became king of Jordan. Father Theodosios was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, present day Turkey, on July 11, 1913. He became an orphan at an
early age and was reared by his grandmother and aunt. He had a burning desire to become a monk and serve the Church in the Holy Land. He came to Palestine in 1928 and remained there until his death, 1991 at the age of 78 years old. He served the Church of Jerusalem with great devotion at various places and positions for 63 years. His last 50 years he was the spiritual father and resident priest at the monastery for women, Saints Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus in Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem.
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Kathimerini
Ahead of top-level Church talks on burgeoning claims of corruption among prominent churchmen, Archbishop Christodoulos yesterday admitted that the Church has its fair share of rotten apples.

“The Church also has people who have broken their oaths,” Christodoulos said during an Athens sermon. “But it has ways of ensuring that such problems are removed.”

On Thursday, the Church’s ruling body, the Holy Synod, will meet to discuss allegations regarding Archimandrite Iakovos Yiossakis — who is being investigated in connection with an alleged court corruption scandal and antiquities theft — as well as claims by a former bishop that the Archbishopric hushed up a drugs scandal involving a bishop and a close aide to Christodoulos. In a sermon yesterday, Anthimos, Bishop of Thessaloniki, said that “the Church, society and the judiciary are in the throes of a crisis.”

January 30, 2005
Feast of the Three Great Hierarchs

Father Pat’s Pastoral Ponderings

Ranking high among the slogans I don’t like is the one that says, “history repeats itself.” I admit history records certain similar and analogous patterns, but strictly speaking it does not “repeat itself.” If it did, it would not be history.

Closer to the truth, but maybe still a bit shy of it, in my opinion, is the much quoted mot of Santayana that those who do not know their history are destined to repeat it. This saying at least has the merit of suggesting that one of the purposes of studying history is to keep us from copying its mistakes. Perhaps it would be a more ample expression of the truth to say that we study history to find out what will work in human life and what won’t.
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January 9, 2005
Father Pat’s Pastoral Ponderings

Among the world’s natural boundaries, few have exercised greater political significance over the centuries than the Danube River. This second largest waterway of Europe (after the Volga), taking its rise in the Black Forest in southwest German, meanders in a mainly easterly direction toward the Black Sea some 1750 miles away, its volume constantly augmented by some 300 tributary streams. Thus it separated the classical Mediterranean lands of the lower Balkans from the more migratory peoples to the north. Indeed, the Roman Empire regarded the Danube as its northern border. Today it partially forms the national boundaries separating Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Besides separating them, however, the Danube has also served to unite various peoples of Europe. Once it becomes navigable at Ulm, this vital traffic artery links together such important cities as Regensburg (where one may still cross it on the oldest stone bridge in Europe), Passau, Linz, Vienna, Bratislava, Esztergom, Budapest, Belgrade, Galati and Izmail. Thus, the Danube’s place in history is secure and pervasive. As a traditional conduit for both commerce and culture, it stands second to no other river in the world.
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http://www.kosovo.com
Belgrade, Jan 4 (Dec 22, Julian Calendar): His Holiness Patriarch Pavle has read the Nativity Epistle to the representatives of the media in the Patriarchal Palace in Belgrade. The text of the Epistle follows:

Serbian Orthodox Church to her spiritual children at Christmas, 2004

+PAVLE
By the Grace of God

For today the Only begotten Son of God is born,
the radiance of His glory,
the Image of His very being and everlastingness.
St. John Damascene, Homily on the Holy Nativity of Christ

This is the day which the Old Testament prophets awaited (Is. 2:2-3; 9,6; Jer. 23:5-6; Ez. 34:23; Micah 5:2); this is the day for which the righteous of the Old Testament yearned (Gen. 12:3; Deut. 18:5); this is the day which has been promised to all who seek the Lord (Ps. 118:24), “for being by nature perfect God, He becomes by nature perfect Man – He is the same, not changing natures, nor undergoing an illusory incarnation” says St. John of Damascus.

Dear Christ-loving brothers and sisters, our dear spiritual children, today the Son of God who becomes the Son of Man is born unto us, remaining miraculously both God and man. Today, through the power and operation of the Holy Spirit, the Savior of the world, the King of Israel, the Son of David, is born of the Virgin, the Holy Theotokos (Mt. 15:22). For this reason we sing, together with St. Gregory the Theologian: “O new combination! O miraculous unity! He who Is becomes and the Uncreated is created.”
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January 2, 2005

In the Christian East it is the Baptism of our Lord that receives the dominant emphasis in the Church’s annual celebration of Theophany (commonly called Epiphany in the West) on January 6. This feast is celebrated, moreover, as the manifestation of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This emphasis is clear in the troparion of the day: “When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest; for the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee, calling Thee His beloved Son; and the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the truth of His word. Wherefore, O Christ, who didst appear and enlighten the world, glory to Thee.”
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The Orlando Sentinal (free registration required)
Debbie Barr, December 9, 2004

MAITLAND — Some might consider becoming a priest of the Greek Orthodox Church somewhat unorthodox if you are neither Greek nor born into Orthodoxy.

For the Rev. James Berends [Fr. Jim, as most call him], who was ordained in July as a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church, it was a natural, if not typical, progression.

Berends, 47, serves at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Maitland, where he assists Senior Rev. Dean Gigicos in overseeing a congregation of about 500 families, predominantly from Orange and Seminole counties.

Berends said his journey to Orthodoxy and the priesthood was not a lightning bolt of revelation, but more of a gravitation.

“It always felt like just a nudge for me; it never felt like a huge jump,” he said.

Berends, who lives in Lake Mary, was born the son of a Baptist minister in Grand Rapids, Mich. He knew early on that he didn’t consider himself a Baptist, but he still felt drawn to Christianity.

“I knew it [my religion] was going to be Christian, I just didn’t know where it was all going to lead,” he said.

Read the entire article on the Orlando Sentinel website.